Jumping from a height of 29 kilometers will help in the establishment of an emergency rescue in space

26/07/2012

Austrian daredevil jumped from a balloon at an altitude of 29 kilometers above the Earth, another step closer to the so-called "space jump". Austrian Felix Baumgartner resigned from his capsule at an altitude of 29,456 feet above the south-eastern New Mexico, and was in free fall for three minutes and 48 seconds, reaching a speed of 863 kilometers per hour, and then opened his parachute and floated to Earth in a total of 10 minutes and 30 seconds.

The height of his jump is about three times the cruising altitude of passenger planes. He successfully landed near Roswell, New Mexico.

This is the second test jump for the Austrian Baumgartner with such an extreme height, which was his personal record. His goal is to break the record for the high jump, jumping from a height of 38,100 feet in the next month. He hopes that he will be able to exceed the speed of sound in a free fall.

"It’s always been my dream," - said in a statement Baumgartner. "What remains is only one step."

This 43-year-old skydiver alone was in a protective capsule that has been raised over Roswell with a giant balloon with helium inside. He was dressed in a high-altitude pressure suit with parachutes and oxygen supply, as at this altitude the atmosphere is very tenuous.

One and a half hours it has taken to reach the target altitude. Before you open the parachute, he was in free fall for 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

"You feel very unusual at an altitude of 29 kilometers," - said Baumgartner. "You can not control the traffic at the exit of the capsule. Stabilize the impossible."

NASA closely follows the development of this project, called Stratos (short for stratosphere). The space agency plans to use collected during these jumps data to create an emergency rescue systems on spacecraft.

Baumgartner is still far from the space jump. Even the planned record jump in the next month will be much lower than the official height at which space begins (100 kilometers).

In his record jump, Baumgartner is going to reach a speed of 1,100 kilometers.